the west memphis three
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Documentaries, Books, Case Coverage, ect...
books
Life After Death
In 1993, teenagers Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jessie Misskelley, Jr.—who have come to be known as the West Memphis Three—were arrested for the murders of three eight-year-old boys in Arkansas. The ensuing trial was marked by tampered evidence, false testimony, and public hysteria. Baldwin and Misskelley were sentenced to life in prison; while eighteen-year-old Echols, deemed the “ringleader,” was sentenced to death. Over the next two decades, the WM3 became known worldwide as a symbol of wrongful conviction and imprisonment, with thousands of supporters and many notable celebrities who called for a new trial. In a shocking turn of events, all three men were released in August 2011.
Now Echols shares his story in full—from abuse by prison guards and wardens, to portraits of fellow inmates and deplorable living conditions, to the incredible reserves of patience, spirituality, and perseverance that kept him alive and sane while incarcerated for nearly two decades.
In these pages, Echols reveals himself a brilliant writer, infusing his narrative with tragedy and irony in equal measure: he describes the terrors he experienced every day and his outrage toward the American justice system, and offers a firsthand account of living on Death Row in heartbreaking, agonizing detail. Life After Death is destined to be a riveting, explosive classic of prison literature.
Now Echols shares his story in full—from abuse by prison guards and wardens, to portraits of fellow inmates and deplorable living conditions, to the incredible reserves of patience, spirituality, and perseverance that kept him alive and sane while incarcerated for nearly two decades.
In these pages, Echols reveals himself a brilliant writer, infusing his narrative with tragedy and irony in equal measure: he describes the terrors he experienced every day and his outrage toward the American justice system, and offers a firsthand account of living on Death Row in heartbreaking, agonizing detail. Life After Death is destined to be a riveting, explosive classic of prison literature.
Devil's Knot: The True Story of the West Memphis Three
The guilty verdicts handed out to three Arkansas teens in a horrific capital murder case were popular in their home state -- even upheld on appeal. But after two HBO documentaries called attention to the witch-hunt atmosphere at the trials, artists and other supporters raised concerns about the accompanying lack of evidence. Now, award-winning journalist Mara Leveritt provides the most comprehensive look yet into this endlessly shocking case.
For weeks in 1993, after the murders of three eight-year-old boys, police in West Memphis, Arkansas, seemed stymied. Then suddenly, detectives charged three teenagers -- alleged members of a satanic cult -- with the killings. Despite stunning investigative blunders, a confession riddled with errors, and an absence of physical evidence linking any of the accused to the crime, the teenagers were tried and convicted. Jurors sentenced Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley to life in prison. They sentenced Damien Echols, the accused ringleader, to death. Ten years later, all three remain in prison. Here, Leveritt unravels this seemingly medieval case and offers close-up views of its key participants, including one with an uncanny knack for evading the law....
For weeks in 1993, after the murders of three eight-year-old boys, police in West Memphis, Arkansas, seemed stymied. Then suddenly, detectives charged three teenagers -- alleged members of a satanic cult -- with the killings. Despite stunning investigative blunders, a confession riddled with errors, and an absence of physical evidence linking any of the accused to the crime, the teenagers were tried and convicted. Jurors sentenced Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley to life in prison. They sentenced Damien Echols, the accused ringleader, to death. Ten years later, all three remain in prison. Here, Leveritt unravels this seemingly medieval case and offers close-up views of its key participants, including one with an uncanny knack for evading the law....
Untying the Knot: John Mark Byers and the West Memphis Three
On May 5th, 1993, a parent’s worst nightmare came true for three couples in a small town in Arkansas. For one of them, the nightmare never ended. Now, for the first time, the complete story of John Mark Byers, the man who endured 15 years of groundless suspicion in the deaths of his eight-year-old son and two friends, is revealed in complete detail. The events of his life, his controversial appearances in two documentary films, the crimes that landed him in prison, and the media attention paid to his activities, are reported with remarkable candor.
Blood of Innocents: The True Story of Multiple Murder in West Memphis, Arkansas
On the evening of May 5, 1993, three Cub Scouts rode their bikes into the woods of Robin Hood Hills in West Memphis. Before dawn, all three would be dead--horribly slain after a night of torture. As shocking as the crime itself was the actual identity of the murderers, who were hardly more than children themselves. 12 pages of photos.
The Last Pentacle of the Sun: Writings in Support of the West Memphis 3
On May 5, 1993, in West Memphis, Arkansas, three 8-year-old boys were brutally murdered. They were found bound ankle-to-wrist with their own shoelaces, severely beaten and dumped in a nearby stream.
Several weeks passed and police were stumped—not even a suspect in the case. The public clamored for an arrest. A month later, detectives finally made three arrests: Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley, Jr.—teenagers who just didn’t fit in: they wore black, listened to heavy metal music and read horror novels. Spurred on by a local “expert,” police decided the murders were part of a satanic ritual, despite the lack of evidence of such at the crime scene. But this mattered little: they had three young misfits—one of whom, Misskelley, had confessed to the murders after a grueling eight hours of police questioning. He recanted it hours later, but by then it was too late.
Surely a jury could not convict these three boys without proof, without a shred of physical evidence. Not in America. But they were convicted. Circumstantial evidence and a clearly coerced confession was enough to send Jessie Misskelley, Jr. and Jason Baldwin to prison for life, while Damien Echols, considered the “ring leader,” was sentenced to death. He is currently on death row, awaiting lethal injection.
While many artists, actors and musicians have come forward to fight this injustice, this book is the first collection of writings in support of the West Memphis 3. Collected here are case-related fiction and essays by some of the best dark fiction writers working today, as well as eight pages of black-and-white illustrations by -horror-master Clive Barker, a piece by comedian Margaret Cho, and an introduction by filmmakers Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky creators of the acclaimed West Memphis 3 documentaries Paradise Lostand Paradise Lost 2: Revelations.
This project is a fundraiser for the West Memphis 3 Defense Fund (wm3.org). Contributors have donated their stories, and all proceeds will go toward legal efforts to ensure that this miscarriage of justice is resolved.
Several weeks passed and police were stumped—not even a suspect in the case. The public clamored for an arrest. A month later, detectives finally made three arrests: Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley, Jr.—teenagers who just didn’t fit in: they wore black, listened to heavy metal music and read horror novels. Spurred on by a local “expert,” police decided the murders were part of a satanic ritual, despite the lack of evidence of such at the crime scene. But this mattered little: they had three young misfits—one of whom, Misskelley, had confessed to the murders after a grueling eight hours of police questioning. He recanted it hours later, but by then it was too late.
Surely a jury could not convict these three boys without proof, without a shred of physical evidence. Not in America. But they were convicted. Circumstantial evidence and a clearly coerced confession was enough to send Jessie Misskelley, Jr. and Jason Baldwin to prison for life, while Damien Echols, considered the “ring leader,” was sentenced to death. He is currently on death row, awaiting lethal injection.
While many artists, actors and musicians have come forward to fight this injustice, this book is the first collection of writings in support of the West Memphis 3. Collected here are case-related fiction and essays by some of the best dark fiction writers working today, as well as eight pages of black-and-white illustrations by -horror-master Clive Barker, a piece by comedian Margaret Cho, and an introduction by filmmakers Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky creators of the acclaimed West Memphis 3 documentaries Paradise Lostand Paradise Lost 2: Revelations.
This project is a fundraiser for the West Memphis 3 Defense Fund (wm3.org). Contributors have donated their stories, and all proceeds will go toward legal efforts to ensure that this miscarriage of justice is resolved.
The Cooksey-Nisenbaum Murders - The Witch Hunts That Led to the Witch Hunt Against the West Memphis 3
An inside story about the witch hunts that led to the witch hunt against the West Memphis 3. These witch hunts in Arkansas include the murders of Syble Cooksey, Ruth Nisenbaum, Ronnie and Juanita Shulths in Jonesboro, and the brutal murders of three 8-year old boys; Stevie Branch, Chris Byers and Michael Moore in West Memphis. This book brings understanding to most of those who don't understand what happened in these 7 murders, and also brings understanding about the witch hunt against the West Memphis 3 and their controversial convictions. Find out how the author became the first supporter of Damien, Jason and Jessie the day they were arrested in June 1993, long before anyone referred to them as the "West Memphis 3".
THIS BOOK IS A TRUE AND FACTUAL ACCOUNT BASED ON AND TAKEN FROM DOCUMENTS OF PUBLIC RECORD; EXCEPT WHERE SPECIFICALLY STATED AS OPINION, WHICH NO RATIONAL PERSON WOULD EVER DISPUTE. ACCURACY OF FACT WAS THE #1 CONCERN OF THE AUTHOR.
You will come to an understanding of how the baseless prosecutions of Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin, Jessie Misskelley and the 4 prosecutions of author Terry Cooksey for illegal speech were all the work and witch hunts of the same people. And backed up and provoked by some of Jonesboro's many christian extremists.
Written by a man who was the object of 4 witch hunts from 1983-1989 just prior to the witch hunt against the West Memphis 3. The author grew up in Jonesboro,Arkansas and knows most of those involved with these highly publicized murder cases in NE Arkansas; including those involved in the arrests, investigations, prosecutions and deceit in all these cases. The author is also the step-son of Syble Cooksey and was close friends with Ronnie and Juanita Shulths.
Once you get started reading this intense multiple murder mystery, you will have a hard time putting it down, as some have said this book is "like a John Grisham novel".
THIS BOOK IS A TRUE AND FACTUAL ACCOUNT BASED ON AND TAKEN FROM DOCUMENTS OF PUBLIC RECORD; EXCEPT WHERE SPECIFICALLY STATED AS OPINION, WHICH NO RATIONAL PERSON WOULD EVER DISPUTE. ACCURACY OF FACT WAS THE #1 CONCERN OF THE AUTHOR.
You will come to an understanding of how the baseless prosecutions of Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin, Jessie Misskelley and the 4 prosecutions of author Terry Cooksey for illegal speech were all the work and witch hunts of the same people. And backed up and provoked by some of Jonesboro's many christian extremists.
Written by a man who was the object of 4 witch hunts from 1983-1989 just prior to the witch hunt against the West Memphis 3. The author grew up in Jonesboro,Arkansas and knows most of those involved with these highly publicized murder cases in NE Arkansas; including those involved in the arrests, investigations, prosecutions and deceit in all these cases. The author is also the step-son of Syble Cooksey and was close friends with Ronnie and Juanita Shulths.
Once you get started reading this intense multiple murder mystery, you will have a hard time putting it down, as some have said this book is "like a John Grisham novel".
Almost Home: My Life Story Vol 1
Almost Home is a message to you from a faraway place. It is a message from a 12-foot by 9-foot cell in a cinderblock building surrounded by coils of razor wire in the middle of a dirt field in Arkansas. It was written by a young man named Damien Echols and it chronicles his life and his experiences in a way that clearly illuminates him, not as a monster, but as a human being. For over 10 years Damien has been an inmate on death row for a crime he did not commit. He, along with Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley have become known as The West Memphis Three, and though the story of their arrest and conviction is widely known, most people don’t know the real people behind the sound bites and the TV news segment clips. Damien has spent much of his time behind bars diligently maintaining his integrity and his sanity by writing.
Almost Home is the product of that self-discipline, and in it you will meet someone who has survived an ordeal many of us would find impossible to live through. There are a few who still believe that Damien is a devil-worshipping child killer, but as time passes and more facts rise to the surface, it becomes even more clear that he is the victim of a peculiar species of hysteria. Read this book and know the truth about him. It is an urgent message from death row; the whole story of who Damien Echols really is.
Almost Home is the product of that self-discipline, and in it you will meet someone who has survived an ordeal many of us would find impossible to live through. There are a few who still believe that Damien is a devil-worshipping child killer, but as time passes and more facts rise to the surface, it becomes even more clear that he is the victim of a peculiar species of hysteria. Read this book and know the truth about him. It is an urgent message from death row; the whole story of who Damien Echols really is.
Broken Summers
In 1993, three young boys were murdered in West Memphis, Arkansas. In what was widely considered a witch hunt, three older boys were convicted of the killings. Ten years later, Henry Rollins used his considerable cultural chops to raise money for their defense fund and for DNA testing, which could help clear them. His vehicle? The acclaimed CD “Rise Above” and a world tour. Broken Summers details the rehearsing of Black Flag songs he hadn’t played in years, dealing with an arrogant manager or two, a diverse group of musicians, recording the CD, and the arduous trek from Tucson to Tokyo that included grilling by heartland shock jocks unsympathetic to his cause. The book covers 14 months of desperate lows and dramatic highs, all rendered in Rollins’s trademark combative style. Included are black-and-white photos of the rehearsals, recording sessions, and tour.
West Memphis Three
High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The West Memphis Three are three men who were tried and convicted as teenagers in 1994 of the 1993 murders of three boys in West Memphis, Arkansas. Damien Echols was sentenced to death, Jessie Misskelley, Jr. was sentenced to life imprisonment plus two 20-year sentences, and Jason Baldwin was sentenced to life imprisonment. During the trial, the prosecution asserted that the children were killed as part of a satanic ritual. A number of documentaries have been based on the case, and celebrities and musicians have held fund raisers in the belief that they are innocent.
Documentaries
Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills
Berlinger and Sinofsky's documentary of a gruesome triple murder in West Memphis, Arkansas and the subsequent trials of three suspects, takes a hard look at both the occult and the American justice system in 'small-town' America. Three teenagers are accused of this horrific crime of killing three children, supposedly as a result of involvement in Satanism. As in their previous documentary, things turn out to be more complex than initial appearances and this film presents the real-life courtroom drama to the viewer, as it unfolds.
WATCH IT HERE
WATCH IT HERE
Paradise Lost 2: Revelations
Bruce Sinofsky and Joe Berlinger visit support groups for Damien Echols, sentenced to lethal injection in the first film, and revisit Mark Byers, who is facing gossip about his possible involvement with the murder of his son. Echols is appealing his sentence and his defense attorney notices what he believes to be bite marks in a photograph of the face of one of the victims; the prosecution argues that the marks are from a belt buckle and not teeth.The three boys convicted in the first film are all tested and do not match the alleged "bite marks" on the victim. The support groups for Echols want Byers to have his bitemark compared to the one on the photo, but Byers has had false teeth since four years after his son's murder. Byers gave the Defense copies of his dental records and they didn't match the "bite marks" either. Byers takes a polygraph to prove his innocence but is on a variety of medications that could affect the outcome of the test, including Xanax and Haldol; he passes the polygraph test.
WATCH IT HERE
WATCH IT HERE
Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory
A further investigation into the arrest of three teenagers who were wrongfully convicted of killing three young boys in Arkansas and spent nearly 20 years in prison before being released because DNA evidence proved their innocence.
WATCH IT HERE
WATCH IT HERE
West of Memphis
West of Memphis is an examination of a failure of justice in Arkansas. The documentary tells the hitherto unknown story behind an extraordinary and desperate fight to bring the truth to light. Told and made by those who lived it, the filmmakers' unprecedented access to the inner workings of the defense, allows the film to show the investigation, research and appeals process in a way that has never been seen before; revealing shocking and disturbing new information about a case that still haunts the American South.
COMING SOON
DECEMBER 2012
COMING SOON
DECEMBER 2012
Devil’s Knot
Based on the book “Devil’s Knot: The True Story of the West Memphis Three” by Mara Leveritt.. Released from prison earlier this year after nearly two decades, Damien Echols, Jessie Misskelley, Jr. and Jason Baldwin were convicted of the murder of three eight-year-old boys in 1993. Their trial was the subject of the Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky documentary, Paradise Lost that brought national media attention to the trial and its outcome. Believing the conviction to be in error, Berlinger and Sinofsky fought for the release of the three with a sequel, Paradise Lost 2: Revelations. A third film, Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory, has incorporated details of the recent release and is currently touring festivals.
COMING SOON
2013
COMING SOON
2013
investigative reports
True Crime With Aphrodite Jones - Case Profile
http://investigation.discovery.com/tv/true-crime/cases/west-memphis-three.html
48 Hours - West Memphis 3: Free
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7381432n
48 Hours - A Cry for Innocence
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6710065n
Piers Morgan Tonight - Echols and Baldwin Interview
http://piersmorgan.blogs.cnn.com/2011/09/29/damien-echols-of-west-memphis-three-describes-life-in-jail-i-hadnt-seen-daylight-in-almost-a-decade/
West Memphis Three - Geraldo Special Report 1994
Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PskDNX9qRr4
Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qU6oApKMyrM
Part 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A23cGFdftxQ
Part 4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAPUvJmqqTs
Part 5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTsYjBQIMRQ
Part 6
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlSPT73NSX8
Media Mayhem : The West Memphis Three
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EF8KT1GtHb
NightLine - West Memphis Three: Inside the Case
http://abcnews.go.com/watch/nightline/SH5584743/VD55140460/nightline-819-west-memphis-three-inside-the-case
West Memphis Three: Time for Truth
Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVQCw6HGZ5s
Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUueIuR5d3k
http://investigation.discovery.com/tv/true-crime/cases/west-memphis-three.html
48 Hours - West Memphis 3: Free
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7381432n
48 Hours - A Cry for Innocence
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6710065n
Piers Morgan Tonight - Echols and Baldwin Interview
http://piersmorgan.blogs.cnn.com/2011/09/29/damien-echols-of-west-memphis-three-describes-life-in-jail-i-hadnt-seen-daylight-in-almost-a-decade/
West Memphis Three - Geraldo Special Report 1994
Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PskDNX9qRr4
Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qU6oApKMyrM
Part 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A23cGFdftxQ
Part 4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAPUvJmqqTs
Part 5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTsYjBQIMRQ
Part 6
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlSPT73NSX8
Media Mayhem : The West Memphis Three
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EF8KT1GtHb
NightLine - West Memphis Three: Inside the Case
http://abcnews.go.com/watch/nightline/SH5584743/VD55140460/nightline-819-west-memphis-three-inside-the-case
West Memphis Three: Time for Truth
Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVQCw6HGZ5s
Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUueIuR5d3k
note worthy articals
Jonesboro Sun
Father of WM3 murder victim certain who killed 3 boys
by Todd Moore - June 12, 2012
I am the father of West Memphis triple murder victim Michael Moore. I am writing this in response to your editorial in the June 6 edition of The Sun titled “Justice Unserved.” It has always been my opinion that justice was served when Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley were convicted in 1994 for the brutal murder of my son and his friends.
The three men who slaughtered my son were convicted by two juries that found them guilty in 1994. Despite this, the Arkansas Supreme Court generously granted the murderers the opportunity for a new evidentiary hearing to be held Dec, 5, 2011, to show evidence they claimed proved their innocence. They could have been granted a new trial to prove these claims of innocence. Instead of presenting their “new evidence” in open court last December, they opted to plead guilty to the murders in August 2011 in exchange for time served.
Second District Prosecuting Attorney Scott Ellington agreed to accept the defense’s plea offer for vague reasons we still don’t understand. Family members learned of the deal only at the last minute. The district attorney was new to the case. But whatever the rational, this continued to make the convicts guilty as a matter of law.
The defense team avoided sharing the results of the tests of everything with us by preemptively entering a guilty plea for their clients. Thanks to the plea deal, we may never know exactly what the defense found when the evidence was retested. Absence of DNA evidence does not prove the West Memphis Three (WM3) are innocent. The killers washed most of the evidence away in the water- filled ditch where they drowned my son. There was plenty of other evidence to convict them in 1994 without positive DNA. Most murderers are convicted without DNA evidence.
The defense attorneys for the WM3 had nearly 20 years to find “the real killer” and failed to do so. After nearly two decades and untold millions in donated funds spent, the best they could do was find a hair that may or may not have belonged to Terry Hobbs, step- father of victim Stevie Branch. It was allegedly found on a shoelace used to tie my son. It has never been proven to actually belong to Terry Hobbs.
Even if it was Terry Hobbs’ hair, that fact would prove nothing. Our sons were best friends, and my child spent considerable time in Terry Hobbs’s home and could have picked up the hair on his shoe. This would be “secondary transfer” and makes the hair of no probative value. The defense has even admitted as much. Terry Hobbs did not murder my son. No credible law enforcement official believes so. Neither did Mark Byers, Mr. Bojangles nor any of the other defense red herrings.
Contrary to your editorial, it is not up to police or the prosecutor to continue to look for “the real killer.” The real killers were arrested and charged back in 1993, were found guilty in 1994 and then admitted their guilt in 2011 after getting a lucky break. To his credit, Prosecutor Ellington has stated many times that his door is open to any new leads and evidence presented to him by the WM3 defense teams.
So far, nothing compelling enough to reopen the case has been presented to him. District Attorney Ellington stated as much the day your editorial appeared. This means despite the defense’s grandiose claims prior to the pleas, not one iota of credible evidence has been presented to show their clients’ innocence or even to view the convicted as anything less than what they are as a matter of law and as a matter of fact: guilty.
The WM3 defense team has been well-funded by numerous celebrities who were misinformed by the biased “Paradise Lost” documentaries. These one-sided films left out nearly all of the evidence that demonstrated the guilt of the WM3. They caused thousands of people to support the release of the convicted child killers with a very limited unndcrstanding of the actual facts of the case.
Mr. Wessel, it appears that you, like so many others, got most of your misinformation about this case from these inaccurate documentaries. If you would take the time to dig a little deeper and actually read the case file documents, you would know that there was ample evidence to convict these three men for murdering my son. These documents are readily available on websites such as www.callahan.8k.com.
Here are just a few examples of what was omitted from the documentaries:
• Jessie Misskelley confessed to the crime at least five times to police, prosecutors, even his own attorneys with his hand on a Bible. Misskelley confessed the first time after less than four hours of police questioning. That questioning was done with permission from his father. He continued to repeatedly confess in the year that followed.
• Damien Echols amassed a mental health record 500 pages long in the years immediately prior to the murders. In his own handwriting, he classified himself as a “homicidal, suicidal, schizophrenic, sociopath” just a months before he brutally murdered my son.
• Read Damien Echols’ current Twitter account to discover his deep-seated interest in skulls and the occult. There he also recently described artwork depicting a man sawing off his own arm as “breathtaking.” In addition, Echols is obscenely profiting off the death of my son by selling his narcissistic books, promoting his self-serving movie, and tattooing murder groupies with his “mark.” For two hundred dollars, you can have this sociopath tattoo an “X” on your arm. These Twitter posts and money-making schemes are a slap in the face to me, my family and my dead son.
• The movies omit the fact that these three men had no alibis. Damien Echols’ and Jessie Misskelley’s alibis completely fell apart on the stand in the 1994 trials. Jason Baldwin’s attorneys didn’t even bother to present an alibi.
• Fibers consistent with a robe in Jason Baldwin’s home and a shirt in Damien Echols’ home were found on the victims. Blue candle wax found on Chris Byers’ shirt was consistent with candle wax found in Damien Echols bedroom.
• The crime lab found that three different knots were used to hogtie the three victims with their own shoelaces. This points toward multiple killers rather than one killer. Witnesses say that Mr. Bojangles, the disoriented man near the crime scene that night, had a cast on one arm. No one person could have subdued and hogtied three energetic young boys–not Terry Hobbs and certainly not the one-armed Mr. Bojangles.
• A knife that could have been used in the murders was found in a lake behind Baldwin’s home. It was a unique knife with a place hold a compass on the end that witnesses described as similar to one owned by Echols.
• A car full of eyewitnesses placed Echols near the crime scene, covered with dirt, on the night of the murders.
• Numerous friends, acquaintances and cell-mates came forward with tales of confessions from all three defendants.
Throw out one or even several of those facts, and there would still be enough to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
I sat through those trials. The basic facts need to be put out there. Otherwise, it makes a mockery of my son’s short life.
Investigate Hobbs/Letter to the Editor - July 15, 2012
Thank you for your editorial of June 6 about the WM3 case. There were six victims in the case. The three Cub Scouts — Christopher Byers, Michael Moore and Stevie Branch, who were murdered — and the three teenagers who were wrongfully convicted for their murders.
These six and their families are entitled to justice, and your editorial hit the nail on the head by saying justice begins by investigating, prosecuting and convicting the murderer.
Judge Laser let the WM3 out of prison because a jury hearing all the evidence now available would acquit them. All the children’s parents were provided the opportunity to review this new evidence. Some chose not to. Others did. Chris Byers’ father is one who did review the evidence. He wanted to see if the WM3’s lawyers were blowing smoke or if the true killer was still amongst us. The evidence he saw not only convinced him the WM3 had nothing to do with killing his son, but also convinced him Terry Wayne Hobbs did.
Mr. Hobbs is the only person who admits being in the Robin Hood Hills woods when the boys were murdered on May 5, 1993. Mr. Hobbs is the same person overheard confessing to his brother that he murdered the boys; the same person not excluded by DNA extracted from a hair found on a shoelace binding Michael Moore’s wrist to his ankle; the same person who spent time that day with another person not excluded by DNA found near the boys’ bodies; and the same person who had Stevie Branch’s pocket knife in his possession — the knife Stevie’s mother always believed Stevie’s killer took. Mr. Hobbs is also the same person who tried to convince Mr. Byers to give him a false alibi.
When you ask Mr. Hobbs about May 5, 1993, he says he never saw the boys that day. Three of his neighbors say that is not true. Mr. Hobbs said he looked for his stepson, Stevie Branch, from and after 4:30 p.m. that afternoon. This is not so according to Mr. Hobbs’ friend David Jacoby. Mr. Jacoby says Mr. Hobbs was at Jacoby’s house playing guitars from shortly after 5 p.m. until about 6:30. When David Jacoby asked Mr. Hobbs about Stevie, Mr. Hobbs said Stevie was riding his bike. This is not what a man does or says if he is searching for his stepson. This is what a man does when he has found his stepson and given him permission to ride his bike. Mr. Hobbs left his friend’s house about 6:30 to go home and check on Stevie.
Stevie and his two friends were there and Mr. Hobbs saw them. His neighbors swear to this.
Mr. Hobbs admitted he was in the Robin Hood Hills woods around the time of the murders, but says he saw and heard nothing. If that does not tell you the state’s original theory of this crime — that three drunken teens ambushed and butchered three 8-year-old boys at that ditch in that small patch of woods as a part of a satanic ritual — is illegitimate, I don’t know what will.
Yet Mr. Hobbs never told the police or prosecutors about being in those woods when the state said the murders were committed. Instead, he kept this knowledge to himself while advocating the WM3 were guilty. That was wrong. Mr. Hobbs should have come forward with this knowledge then. Why didn’t he? Could it be Mr. Hobbs says he was in those woods just in case someone saw him there, and he kept quiet about being there during the trials so that three teens could do the time for his crime?
Mr. Hobbs was never questioned or cleared by the police in 1993. His neighbors, friends and family were not interviewed; his criminal record was not checked. It is about time the state actually investigated Terry Wayne Hobbs for the murders of Chris, Michael and Stevie to see if Chris’ Dad is right. If Mr. Byers is right, the state needs to prosecute Terry Wayne Hobbs. And no matter what, the state should exonerate the WM3. Those guys spent 18 years in hell for a crime they did not commit.
Terry Hobbs’ Response - July 26, 2012
Stepfather of WM3 victim says attacks unconscionable
By Terry Wayne Hobbs
The numerous falsehoods and distortions contained in Capi Peck’s letter of July 15 make it is difficult to decide where to begin. I’ll just start with her most outrageous implication. I obviously had nothing to do with the murders of my beautiful stepson, Stevie Branch Jr., and his beloved friends Christopher Byers and Micheal Moore. No legitimate law enforcement officer ever has made this unconscionable claim.
Damien Echols, Jessie Misskelley and Jason Baldwin always have been guilty of those gut-wrenching atrocities. Two juries convicted Echols, Misskelley and Baldwin in 1994. Last August, those convicts stood before the world and, despite whatever spin is put on it, conceded they slaughtered these precious children. Yet, Ms. Peck considers the convicted child killers worthy of her friendship and support.
I can’t tell whether Ms. Peck’s next major falsehood is an outright lie or a simple ignorance of the law. Judge Laser did not “let the WM3 out of prison because a jury hearing all the evidence available would acquit them.” It was the exact opposite. Judge Laser allowed the three killers to enter pleas after he was convinced there was a factual basis to do so. In other words, quite contrary to what Ms. Peck wrote, the judge took the Alford pleas only because he felt the murderers could be found guilty again if their cases went to trial.
Ms. Peck’s version of the events of May 5, 1993, is a complete distortion of what actually happened. The West Memphis Police Department did not consider me a suspect for a very good reason — there was absolutely no basis for them to do so. Further, the police located and arrested the actual murderers. Juries convicted the reasonable parties. The killers later entered pleas that made them guilty as a matter of law. These facts are incontrovertible to anyone but a conspiracy theorist.
Ms. Peck was a cog in the West Memphis Three propaganda machine that generated millions of dollars purportedly to fund the defense. By some estimates, as much as $10 million to $20 million was raised. Ultimately, the money simply reaffirmed the three child murderers are indeed the guilty parties, yet let them walk out of prison.
Prosecutor Scott Ellington recently said the defense has not brought forward a single shred of evidence that would justify the reopening of this case. That must be difficult to explain to gullible donors who were told new evidence would be presented at hearings and would result in new trials. Instead, millions of dollars reportedly spent to investigate and develop new evidence led to three pleas. A year after these plea bargains, the killers remain just as they have been since the day they butchered Stevie, Michael and Christopher.
Most legal observers agree Misskelley wouldn’t have been granted a new trial due to his multiple confessions. Echols and Baldwin would have faced uphill battles due to the evidence against them, including their own admissions of guilt. This is likely why all three decided to plea out rather than go forward with the evidentiary hearings. From news accounts, the defense team subsequently sent Prosecutor Ellingon a “West of Memphis” DVD and unsworn hearsay declarations that would be inadmissible in an Iranian court of law. Apparently $20 million won’t buy as much as in the past.
I previously have been held to be a public figure and therefore am somewhat vulnerable to libelous attacks such as the one Ms. Peck launched on your editorial page. Let me suggest in closing that if anything should be investigated, it isn’t me as the defense’s latest (and probably not last) red herring suspect. No, the focus should be on what actually happened to the millions raised that allowed the murderers to roam the streets but in the process didn’t purchase one iota of exculpatory evidence. That is the true scandal here. There never will be an exoneration because the actual killers were investigated, arrested, convicted and finally conceded they did it. No governor in his or her right mind would issue pardons either.
I understand Capi Peck is a wonderful baker. She should stick to pastries and leave law enforcement, legal proceedings and fundraising for legitimate causes to those more capable and skilled than she is. Ms. Peck, please allow those of us who truly mourn for the actual three victims, some closure. Stevie’s horrific murder devastated me, my ex-wife and our daughter. We deserve peace no matter how much additional money can be generated exploiting this precious boy’s death. That is a matter of simple decency and actual justice. If you have any sense of shame at all you will come to realize as much.
It is the right thing to do — even if it requires someone to bake more after murder groupies no longer blindly throw money into the bill.
Boy’s mother Recalls Fateful Day - July 6, 2012
The last time Dana Moore saw her son Michael, he was wearing his Boy Scout shirt, blue jeans, his scout cap and a name badge.
Michael was on his bike in their West Memphis neighborhood riding with two friends, Stevie Branch and Christopher Byers, on May 5, 1993. Dana told her daughter Dawn to call the trio because it was dinner time, according to court documents.
“Right after I went around the neighborhood, and I thought he just ... you know I missed him,” Dana Moore said during Jessie Misskelley’s trial in January 1994. “I went back home and waited for him to come back. ... He didn’t come back.”
The next day police pulled the boys’ nude, bound bodies from an irrigation ditch in Robin Hood Hills, a wooded area not far from their neighborhood. Michael’s Boy Scout uniform was found submerged by a stick not far from his body.
A month later Misskelley, then 17, Damien Echols, 18, and Jason Baldwin, 16, were arrested and charged with capital murder. Misskelley and Baldwin were given life sentences for killing Stevie, Michael and Christopher.
Echols, the alleged ringleader, received a death sentence.
The convictions might be the most controversial in Arkansas justice history. No DNA or forensic evidence linked the three teens to the crimes. There were few facts to support the alleged motive — an occult or Satanic act.
Echols often thinks of the three boys whose bodies were found in the ditch, he said. Three boys he claims he never met or ever came into contact with.
“So many people have been destroyed by this,” Echols said from a holding cell in the Department of Correction’s Varner Unit.
For years supporters of the so-called “West Memphis Three” claimed a botched police investigation, zealous prosecutors Brent Davis and John Fogleman, and Judge David Burnett convicted innocent men.
DNA testing
In 2007 the state did DNA tests of dozens of pieces of evidence collected from the scene where the bodies were discovered. Several DNA profiles were found, but none of them matched Echols, Baldwin or Misskelley.
“Test everything,” Echols said. “Test. Test. Test. I want them to test every damn thing.”
The Arkansas Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments Sept. 3 about the new DNA evidence and allegations that Echols-Baldwin juror foreman Kent Arnold introduced inadmissible evidence into the jury room, according to court documents.
DNA collected did not match the convicted, but a hair pulled from the ligature binding Michael was a mitochondrial match for Stevie’s stepfather, Terry Hobbs, court documents state. Another hair found on a tree stump near the crime scene was a possible mitochondrial match for Hobbs’ friend, David Jacoby — the man Hobbs said he was with when the boys disappeared.
Hobbs vehemently denies killing his stepson and the boy’s friends. Attorneys, forensic experts and private investigators hired by supporters and Echols’ wife, Lorri Davis, have cast a false light on him, Hobbs said.
“These people should be ashamed of themselves,” Hobbs said. “I can’t believe what they’re willing to say and what they’re willing to do.”
Stevie’s mother, Pam Hobbs, divorced from Hobbs, has said her ex-husband could have been involved in the murders.
Pam Hobbs said she thinks her son and the other boys were murdered somewhere else and dumped into the ditch. At a 2009 court hearing Pam Hobbs approached Jason Baldwin and told him, “I hope God grants you a new trial.”
She also corresponds with Echols.
Christopher’s stepfather, John Mark Byers, said Hobbs was involved in the murders, according to sworn affidavits filed in federal court.
Media bombardment
Hobbs said he still remains in contact with his former wife. Intense media coverage and bombardment from West Memphis Three supporters prompted his ex-wife’s most recent accusations, Hobbs said.
The two have a daughter, Amanda, and grandchildren, he said. Amanda has been talking with filmmakers and investigators working to free Echols and has been put under hypnosis, Hobbs said.
“It’s as low-down as it can be,” Hobbs said. “That Lorri Davis is behind this.”
Pressed further, Hobbs said he fears hypnosis might lead his daughter to conjure a false memory that places her and him at the crime scene with the dead boys.
“It’s kind of keeping me on the edge,” he said.
Davis said she heard Amanda underwent hypnosis but denied funding it.
Hobbs said the jailed men are guilty and “can rot in hell as far as I’m concerned.”
Echols stopped short of accusing Hobbs. “I’m hesitant to put the finger on anyone because of what I’ve been through,” he said. Asked again, Echols said “I feel the two men whose DNA was found at the scene are the most likely suspects.”
Case remains closed
The West Memphis Police Department has steadfastly maintained neither Hobbs nor Jacoby is a suspect, and the case is closed. Detective Mike Allen, who discovered the bodies in the ditch, was not available for comment, but in a recent interview with The Sun he said police in his department still think the convicted men are guilty. Allen said Hobbs and Jacoby’s hair probably reached the crime scene by secondary hair transfer.
“We’re not saying Hobbs is the perpetrator,” Arkansas Take Action spokesman Lonnie Soury said. “But it [lack of DNA] strongly exonerates the three men in jail.”
ATA is an advocacy group for the West Memphis Three.
Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel is most responsible for his continued imprisonment, Echols said. McDaniel could ask for a new trial based on the new DNA evidence, allegations of juror misconduct or the findings of forensic pathologists, Echols said.
Dr. Michael Baden, Dr. Werner Spitz, Dr. Richard Souviron and Dr. Janice Ophoven testified in August the victims’ injuries were not inflicted by a knife attack, a position held by prosecutors. The forensic pathologists believe the majority of cuts to the bodies were post-mortem animal predation.
Baden previously was the chief medical examiner for New York City, and Spitz has written text books for doctoral forensic pathology courses. Souviron identified bite marks on women in Florida who were killed by notorious serial killer Ted Bundy.
Ophoven is regarded as one of the top pediatric forensic pathologists in the country, according to experts.
“The attorney general doesn’t engage in back-and-forth with death row inmates,” McDaniel spokesman Aaron Sadler said. “However, to say that he is responsible for this inmate’s situation is ridiculous. The attorney general wasn’t on the jury. He wasn’t the judge. He wasn’ the prosecutor. He’s required to uphold sentences, and anyone serving
as attorney general would do that.”
Review of court briefs
Court briefs filed by McDaniel’s office in the Arkansas Supreme Court say Echols, Baldwin and Misskelley’s DNA wasn’t collected at the crime scene. But that’s not enough to set them free.
“That the appellant [Echols] was excluded as the source of the biological material tested from the crime scene is inconclusive as to his claim of innocence because his exclusion as a source does not prove that he was not at the crime scene or not a killer, particularly as it was apparent there was an attempt to conceal the crimes,” the brief states.
It further states: “It is conceivable that the appellant left no biological material or that any he left was not recovered or tested, and there are wholly and obvious innocent explanations for the recovery of biological material of the victim’s stepfather and that of his friend.”
Echols hopes to be released within the year. If he gets out of prison, Echols said he wants to speak on college campuses about false imprisonment. He hopes to continue to meditate, study, and spend time with his wife.
He wants to make two trips his first year — one to celebrate Halloween in Salem, Mass., and the other to Branson, Mo., to see the Christmas lights.
If he could sit in a room with Burnett, Davis and Fogleman he’d ask them one question.
“How long do I have to sit here?” an agitated Echols asked. “They know what’s going on here. High school kids, junior high kids can come to a conclusion that they can’t? They should think about that.”
Father of WM3 murder victim certain who killed 3 boys
by Todd Moore - June 12, 2012
I am the father of West Memphis triple murder victim Michael Moore. I am writing this in response to your editorial in the June 6 edition of The Sun titled “Justice Unserved.” It has always been my opinion that justice was served when Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley were convicted in 1994 for the brutal murder of my son and his friends.
The three men who slaughtered my son were convicted by two juries that found them guilty in 1994. Despite this, the Arkansas Supreme Court generously granted the murderers the opportunity for a new evidentiary hearing to be held Dec, 5, 2011, to show evidence they claimed proved their innocence. They could have been granted a new trial to prove these claims of innocence. Instead of presenting their “new evidence” in open court last December, they opted to plead guilty to the murders in August 2011 in exchange for time served.
Second District Prosecuting Attorney Scott Ellington agreed to accept the defense’s plea offer for vague reasons we still don’t understand. Family members learned of the deal only at the last minute. The district attorney was new to the case. But whatever the rational, this continued to make the convicts guilty as a matter of law.
The defense team avoided sharing the results of the tests of everything with us by preemptively entering a guilty plea for their clients. Thanks to the plea deal, we may never know exactly what the defense found when the evidence was retested. Absence of DNA evidence does not prove the West Memphis Three (WM3) are innocent. The killers washed most of the evidence away in the water- filled ditch where they drowned my son. There was plenty of other evidence to convict them in 1994 without positive DNA. Most murderers are convicted without DNA evidence.
The defense attorneys for the WM3 had nearly 20 years to find “the real killer” and failed to do so. After nearly two decades and untold millions in donated funds spent, the best they could do was find a hair that may or may not have belonged to Terry Hobbs, step- father of victim Stevie Branch. It was allegedly found on a shoelace used to tie my son. It has never been proven to actually belong to Terry Hobbs.
Even if it was Terry Hobbs’ hair, that fact would prove nothing. Our sons were best friends, and my child spent considerable time in Terry Hobbs’s home and could have picked up the hair on his shoe. This would be “secondary transfer” and makes the hair of no probative value. The defense has even admitted as much. Terry Hobbs did not murder my son. No credible law enforcement official believes so. Neither did Mark Byers, Mr. Bojangles nor any of the other defense red herrings.
Contrary to your editorial, it is not up to police or the prosecutor to continue to look for “the real killer.” The real killers were arrested and charged back in 1993, were found guilty in 1994 and then admitted their guilt in 2011 after getting a lucky break. To his credit, Prosecutor Ellington has stated many times that his door is open to any new leads and evidence presented to him by the WM3 defense teams.
So far, nothing compelling enough to reopen the case has been presented to him. District Attorney Ellington stated as much the day your editorial appeared. This means despite the defense’s grandiose claims prior to the pleas, not one iota of credible evidence has been presented to show their clients’ innocence or even to view the convicted as anything less than what they are as a matter of law and as a matter of fact: guilty.
The WM3 defense team has been well-funded by numerous celebrities who were misinformed by the biased “Paradise Lost” documentaries. These one-sided films left out nearly all of the evidence that demonstrated the guilt of the WM3. They caused thousands of people to support the release of the convicted child killers with a very limited unndcrstanding of the actual facts of the case.
Mr. Wessel, it appears that you, like so many others, got most of your misinformation about this case from these inaccurate documentaries. If you would take the time to dig a little deeper and actually read the case file documents, you would know that there was ample evidence to convict these three men for murdering my son. These documents are readily available on websites such as www.callahan.8k.com.
Here are just a few examples of what was omitted from the documentaries:
• Jessie Misskelley confessed to the crime at least five times to police, prosecutors, even his own attorneys with his hand on a Bible. Misskelley confessed the first time after less than four hours of police questioning. That questioning was done with permission from his father. He continued to repeatedly confess in the year that followed.
• Damien Echols amassed a mental health record 500 pages long in the years immediately prior to the murders. In his own handwriting, he classified himself as a “homicidal, suicidal, schizophrenic, sociopath” just a months before he brutally murdered my son.
• Read Damien Echols’ current Twitter account to discover his deep-seated interest in skulls and the occult. There he also recently described artwork depicting a man sawing off his own arm as “breathtaking.” In addition, Echols is obscenely profiting off the death of my son by selling his narcissistic books, promoting his self-serving movie, and tattooing murder groupies with his “mark.” For two hundred dollars, you can have this sociopath tattoo an “X” on your arm. These Twitter posts and money-making schemes are a slap in the face to me, my family and my dead son.
• The movies omit the fact that these three men had no alibis. Damien Echols’ and Jessie Misskelley’s alibis completely fell apart on the stand in the 1994 trials. Jason Baldwin’s attorneys didn’t even bother to present an alibi.
• Fibers consistent with a robe in Jason Baldwin’s home and a shirt in Damien Echols’ home were found on the victims. Blue candle wax found on Chris Byers’ shirt was consistent with candle wax found in Damien Echols bedroom.
• The crime lab found that three different knots were used to hogtie the three victims with their own shoelaces. This points toward multiple killers rather than one killer. Witnesses say that Mr. Bojangles, the disoriented man near the crime scene that night, had a cast on one arm. No one person could have subdued and hogtied three energetic young boys–not Terry Hobbs and certainly not the one-armed Mr. Bojangles.
• A knife that could have been used in the murders was found in a lake behind Baldwin’s home. It was a unique knife with a place hold a compass on the end that witnesses described as similar to one owned by Echols.
• A car full of eyewitnesses placed Echols near the crime scene, covered with dirt, on the night of the murders.
• Numerous friends, acquaintances and cell-mates came forward with tales of confessions from all three defendants.
Throw out one or even several of those facts, and there would still be enough to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
I sat through those trials. The basic facts need to be put out there. Otherwise, it makes a mockery of my son’s short life.
Investigate Hobbs/Letter to the Editor - July 15, 2012
Thank you for your editorial of June 6 about the WM3 case. There were six victims in the case. The three Cub Scouts — Christopher Byers, Michael Moore and Stevie Branch, who were murdered — and the three teenagers who were wrongfully convicted for their murders.
These six and their families are entitled to justice, and your editorial hit the nail on the head by saying justice begins by investigating, prosecuting and convicting the murderer.
Judge Laser let the WM3 out of prison because a jury hearing all the evidence now available would acquit them. All the children’s parents were provided the opportunity to review this new evidence. Some chose not to. Others did. Chris Byers’ father is one who did review the evidence. He wanted to see if the WM3’s lawyers were blowing smoke or if the true killer was still amongst us. The evidence he saw not only convinced him the WM3 had nothing to do with killing his son, but also convinced him Terry Wayne Hobbs did.
Mr. Hobbs is the only person who admits being in the Robin Hood Hills woods when the boys were murdered on May 5, 1993. Mr. Hobbs is the same person overheard confessing to his brother that he murdered the boys; the same person not excluded by DNA extracted from a hair found on a shoelace binding Michael Moore’s wrist to his ankle; the same person who spent time that day with another person not excluded by DNA found near the boys’ bodies; and the same person who had Stevie Branch’s pocket knife in his possession — the knife Stevie’s mother always believed Stevie’s killer took. Mr. Hobbs is also the same person who tried to convince Mr. Byers to give him a false alibi.
When you ask Mr. Hobbs about May 5, 1993, he says he never saw the boys that day. Three of his neighbors say that is not true. Mr. Hobbs said he looked for his stepson, Stevie Branch, from and after 4:30 p.m. that afternoon. This is not so according to Mr. Hobbs’ friend David Jacoby. Mr. Jacoby says Mr. Hobbs was at Jacoby’s house playing guitars from shortly after 5 p.m. until about 6:30. When David Jacoby asked Mr. Hobbs about Stevie, Mr. Hobbs said Stevie was riding his bike. This is not what a man does or says if he is searching for his stepson. This is what a man does when he has found his stepson and given him permission to ride his bike. Mr. Hobbs left his friend’s house about 6:30 to go home and check on Stevie.
Stevie and his two friends were there and Mr. Hobbs saw them. His neighbors swear to this.
Mr. Hobbs admitted he was in the Robin Hood Hills woods around the time of the murders, but says he saw and heard nothing. If that does not tell you the state’s original theory of this crime — that three drunken teens ambushed and butchered three 8-year-old boys at that ditch in that small patch of woods as a part of a satanic ritual — is illegitimate, I don’t know what will.
Yet Mr. Hobbs never told the police or prosecutors about being in those woods when the state said the murders were committed. Instead, he kept this knowledge to himself while advocating the WM3 were guilty. That was wrong. Mr. Hobbs should have come forward with this knowledge then. Why didn’t he? Could it be Mr. Hobbs says he was in those woods just in case someone saw him there, and he kept quiet about being there during the trials so that three teens could do the time for his crime?
Mr. Hobbs was never questioned or cleared by the police in 1993. His neighbors, friends and family were not interviewed; his criminal record was not checked. It is about time the state actually investigated Terry Wayne Hobbs for the murders of Chris, Michael and Stevie to see if Chris’ Dad is right. If Mr. Byers is right, the state needs to prosecute Terry Wayne Hobbs. And no matter what, the state should exonerate the WM3. Those guys spent 18 years in hell for a crime they did not commit.
Terry Hobbs’ Response - July 26, 2012
Stepfather of WM3 victim says attacks unconscionable
By Terry Wayne Hobbs
The numerous falsehoods and distortions contained in Capi Peck’s letter of July 15 make it is difficult to decide where to begin. I’ll just start with her most outrageous implication. I obviously had nothing to do with the murders of my beautiful stepson, Stevie Branch Jr., and his beloved friends Christopher Byers and Micheal Moore. No legitimate law enforcement officer ever has made this unconscionable claim.
Damien Echols, Jessie Misskelley and Jason Baldwin always have been guilty of those gut-wrenching atrocities. Two juries convicted Echols, Misskelley and Baldwin in 1994. Last August, those convicts stood before the world and, despite whatever spin is put on it, conceded they slaughtered these precious children. Yet, Ms. Peck considers the convicted child killers worthy of her friendship and support.
I can’t tell whether Ms. Peck’s next major falsehood is an outright lie or a simple ignorance of the law. Judge Laser did not “let the WM3 out of prison because a jury hearing all the evidence available would acquit them.” It was the exact opposite. Judge Laser allowed the three killers to enter pleas after he was convinced there was a factual basis to do so. In other words, quite contrary to what Ms. Peck wrote, the judge took the Alford pleas only because he felt the murderers could be found guilty again if their cases went to trial.
Ms. Peck’s version of the events of May 5, 1993, is a complete distortion of what actually happened. The West Memphis Police Department did not consider me a suspect for a very good reason — there was absolutely no basis for them to do so. Further, the police located and arrested the actual murderers. Juries convicted the reasonable parties. The killers later entered pleas that made them guilty as a matter of law. These facts are incontrovertible to anyone but a conspiracy theorist.
Ms. Peck was a cog in the West Memphis Three propaganda machine that generated millions of dollars purportedly to fund the defense. By some estimates, as much as $10 million to $20 million was raised. Ultimately, the money simply reaffirmed the three child murderers are indeed the guilty parties, yet let them walk out of prison.
Prosecutor Scott Ellington recently said the defense has not brought forward a single shred of evidence that would justify the reopening of this case. That must be difficult to explain to gullible donors who were told new evidence would be presented at hearings and would result in new trials. Instead, millions of dollars reportedly spent to investigate and develop new evidence led to three pleas. A year after these plea bargains, the killers remain just as they have been since the day they butchered Stevie, Michael and Christopher.
Most legal observers agree Misskelley wouldn’t have been granted a new trial due to his multiple confessions. Echols and Baldwin would have faced uphill battles due to the evidence against them, including their own admissions of guilt. This is likely why all three decided to plea out rather than go forward with the evidentiary hearings. From news accounts, the defense team subsequently sent Prosecutor Ellingon a “West of Memphis” DVD and unsworn hearsay declarations that would be inadmissible in an Iranian court of law. Apparently $20 million won’t buy as much as in the past.
I previously have been held to be a public figure and therefore am somewhat vulnerable to libelous attacks such as the one Ms. Peck launched on your editorial page. Let me suggest in closing that if anything should be investigated, it isn’t me as the defense’s latest (and probably not last) red herring suspect. No, the focus should be on what actually happened to the millions raised that allowed the murderers to roam the streets but in the process didn’t purchase one iota of exculpatory evidence. That is the true scandal here. There never will be an exoneration because the actual killers were investigated, arrested, convicted and finally conceded they did it. No governor in his or her right mind would issue pardons either.
I understand Capi Peck is a wonderful baker. She should stick to pastries and leave law enforcement, legal proceedings and fundraising for legitimate causes to those more capable and skilled than she is. Ms. Peck, please allow those of us who truly mourn for the actual three victims, some closure. Stevie’s horrific murder devastated me, my ex-wife and our daughter. We deserve peace no matter how much additional money can be generated exploiting this precious boy’s death. That is a matter of simple decency and actual justice. If you have any sense of shame at all you will come to realize as much.
It is the right thing to do — even if it requires someone to bake more after murder groupies no longer blindly throw money into the bill.
Boy’s mother Recalls Fateful Day - July 6, 2012
The last time Dana Moore saw her son Michael, he was wearing his Boy Scout shirt, blue jeans, his scout cap and a name badge.
Michael was on his bike in their West Memphis neighborhood riding with two friends, Stevie Branch and Christopher Byers, on May 5, 1993. Dana told her daughter Dawn to call the trio because it was dinner time, according to court documents.
“Right after I went around the neighborhood, and I thought he just ... you know I missed him,” Dana Moore said during Jessie Misskelley’s trial in January 1994. “I went back home and waited for him to come back. ... He didn’t come back.”
The next day police pulled the boys’ nude, bound bodies from an irrigation ditch in Robin Hood Hills, a wooded area not far from their neighborhood. Michael’s Boy Scout uniform was found submerged by a stick not far from his body.
A month later Misskelley, then 17, Damien Echols, 18, and Jason Baldwin, 16, were arrested and charged with capital murder. Misskelley and Baldwin were given life sentences for killing Stevie, Michael and Christopher.
Echols, the alleged ringleader, received a death sentence.
The convictions might be the most controversial in Arkansas justice history. No DNA or forensic evidence linked the three teens to the crimes. There were few facts to support the alleged motive — an occult or Satanic act.
Echols often thinks of the three boys whose bodies were found in the ditch, he said. Three boys he claims he never met or ever came into contact with.
“So many people have been destroyed by this,” Echols said from a holding cell in the Department of Correction’s Varner Unit.
For years supporters of the so-called “West Memphis Three” claimed a botched police investigation, zealous prosecutors Brent Davis and John Fogleman, and Judge David Burnett convicted innocent men.
DNA testing
In 2007 the state did DNA tests of dozens of pieces of evidence collected from the scene where the bodies were discovered. Several DNA profiles were found, but none of them matched Echols, Baldwin or Misskelley.
“Test everything,” Echols said. “Test. Test. Test. I want them to test every damn thing.”
The Arkansas Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments Sept. 3 about the new DNA evidence and allegations that Echols-Baldwin juror foreman Kent Arnold introduced inadmissible evidence into the jury room, according to court documents.
DNA collected did not match the convicted, but a hair pulled from the ligature binding Michael was a mitochondrial match for Stevie’s stepfather, Terry Hobbs, court documents state. Another hair found on a tree stump near the crime scene was a possible mitochondrial match for Hobbs’ friend, David Jacoby — the man Hobbs said he was with when the boys disappeared.
Hobbs vehemently denies killing his stepson and the boy’s friends. Attorneys, forensic experts and private investigators hired by supporters and Echols’ wife, Lorri Davis, have cast a false light on him, Hobbs said.
“These people should be ashamed of themselves,” Hobbs said. “I can’t believe what they’re willing to say and what they’re willing to do.”
Stevie’s mother, Pam Hobbs, divorced from Hobbs, has said her ex-husband could have been involved in the murders.
Pam Hobbs said she thinks her son and the other boys were murdered somewhere else and dumped into the ditch. At a 2009 court hearing Pam Hobbs approached Jason Baldwin and told him, “I hope God grants you a new trial.”
She also corresponds with Echols.
Christopher’s stepfather, John Mark Byers, said Hobbs was involved in the murders, according to sworn affidavits filed in federal court.
Media bombardment
Hobbs said he still remains in contact with his former wife. Intense media coverage and bombardment from West Memphis Three supporters prompted his ex-wife’s most recent accusations, Hobbs said.
The two have a daughter, Amanda, and grandchildren, he said. Amanda has been talking with filmmakers and investigators working to free Echols and has been put under hypnosis, Hobbs said.
“It’s as low-down as it can be,” Hobbs said. “That Lorri Davis is behind this.”
Pressed further, Hobbs said he fears hypnosis might lead his daughter to conjure a false memory that places her and him at the crime scene with the dead boys.
“It’s kind of keeping me on the edge,” he said.
Davis said she heard Amanda underwent hypnosis but denied funding it.
Hobbs said the jailed men are guilty and “can rot in hell as far as I’m concerned.”
Echols stopped short of accusing Hobbs. “I’m hesitant to put the finger on anyone because of what I’ve been through,” he said. Asked again, Echols said “I feel the two men whose DNA was found at the scene are the most likely suspects.”
Case remains closed
The West Memphis Police Department has steadfastly maintained neither Hobbs nor Jacoby is a suspect, and the case is closed. Detective Mike Allen, who discovered the bodies in the ditch, was not available for comment, but in a recent interview with The Sun he said police in his department still think the convicted men are guilty. Allen said Hobbs and Jacoby’s hair probably reached the crime scene by secondary hair transfer.
“We’re not saying Hobbs is the perpetrator,” Arkansas Take Action spokesman Lonnie Soury said. “But it [lack of DNA] strongly exonerates the three men in jail.”
ATA is an advocacy group for the West Memphis Three.
Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel is most responsible for his continued imprisonment, Echols said. McDaniel could ask for a new trial based on the new DNA evidence, allegations of juror misconduct or the findings of forensic pathologists, Echols said.
Dr. Michael Baden, Dr. Werner Spitz, Dr. Richard Souviron and Dr. Janice Ophoven testified in August the victims’ injuries were not inflicted by a knife attack, a position held by prosecutors. The forensic pathologists believe the majority of cuts to the bodies were post-mortem animal predation.
Baden previously was the chief medical examiner for New York City, and Spitz has written text books for doctoral forensic pathology courses. Souviron identified bite marks on women in Florida who were killed by notorious serial killer Ted Bundy.
Ophoven is regarded as one of the top pediatric forensic pathologists in the country, according to experts.
“The attorney general doesn’t engage in back-and-forth with death row inmates,” McDaniel spokesman Aaron Sadler said. “However, to say that he is responsible for this inmate’s situation is ridiculous. The attorney general wasn’t on the jury. He wasn’t the judge. He wasn’ the prosecutor. He’s required to uphold sentences, and anyone serving
as attorney general would do that.”
Review of court briefs
Court briefs filed by McDaniel’s office in the Arkansas Supreme Court say Echols, Baldwin and Misskelley’s DNA wasn’t collected at the crime scene. But that’s not enough to set them free.
“That the appellant [Echols] was excluded as the source of the biological material tested from the crime scene is inconclusive as to his claim of innocence because his exclusion as a source does not prove that he was not at the crime scene or not a killer, particularly as it was apparent there was an attempt to conceal the crimes,” the brief states.
It further states: “It is conceivable that the appellant left no biological material or that any he left was not recovered or tested, and there are wholly and obvious innocent explanations for the recovery of biological material of the victim’s stepfather and that of his friend.”
Echols hopes to be released within the year. If he gets out of prison, Echols said he wants to speak on college campuses about false imprisonment. He hopes to continue to meditate, study, and spend time with his wife.
He wants to make two trips his first year — one to celebrate Halloween in Salem, Mass., and the other to Branson, Mo., to see the Christmas lights.
If he could sit in a room with Burnett, Davis and Fogleman he’d ask them one question.
“How long do I have to sit here?” an agitated Echols asked. “They know what’s going on here. High school kids, junior high kids can come to a conclusion that they can’t? They should think about that.”